Meetings Scheduled on Nomination of Laurel Hill to National Register of Historic Places

Meetings Scheduled on Nomination of Laurel Hill
to National Register of Historic Places

A series of public meetings is scheduled on the nomination of a portion
of Laurel Hill and the former District of Columbia Department of
Corrections prison site to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sept. 22, Fairfax County Supervisor Gerry Hyland will sponsor a
community meeting on the nomination.
7:30 p.m., South County High School, Room 103, 8307-A Silverbrook
Road, Lorton

The proposed “D.C. Workhouse and Reformatory Historic District”
encompasses approximately 500 acres of the former prison site, including
the rolling Piedmont landscape with traditional farm structures, as well
as the former reformatory, penitentiary and the Occoquan workhouse. These
three facilities were built in the Colonial Revival style with bricks
baked in onsite kilns dating to approximately 1916. Laurel Hill is
historically significant for its embrace of President Theodore
Roosevelt’s desire for a prison focusing on the rehabilitation of
inmates, and it served as a model for Progressive Era correctional
facilities. The property served as the site of the District of Columbia
Prison from 1910 to 2001.

The entire area of Laurel Hill, approximately 2,400 acres, was
transferred to county ownership in 2002.

Following this series of meetings, the State Review Board and Historic
Resources Board will consider the nomination at their Dec. 7 public
meetings in Richmond. In late December, the Virginia Department of
Historic Resources is scheduled to forward the nomination to the National
Park Service. A final decision about placement on the National Register
of Historic Places is scheduled for late February or early March 2006.

The benefits of having properties listed on the National Register
include qualification for tax credits useful for offsetting the cost of
rehabilitation; the ability to apply for grants available only to
designated properties; recognition of the historic value of a site; and
demonstrating good stewardship to protect the historically significant
features of the property.

For more information about the county public meetings, including
reasonable ADA accommodations, contact Linda Blank, historic preservation
planner, at 703-324-1380, TTY 711. For more information on the Virginia
Department of Historic Resources hearing scheduled for Oct. 25, including
requesting a copy of the district nomination and boundary map, contact
Jean McRae at 804-367-2323 (extension 102), TTY 711, or via e-mail at jean.mcrae@dhr.virginia.gov.
This information is scheduled to be published mid to late September.